


The Real Blade Runners

by ThayerKerbasy



Series: A Man and His Dog [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Episode: s09e11 First Born, Episode: s09e16 Blade Runners, Gen, Juliet POV, Juliet is a Good Dog
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-17
Updated: 2016-11-17
Packaged: 2018-08-29 14:41:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8493832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThayerKerbasy/pseuds/ThayerKerbasy
Summary: Crowley enlists Juliet's help to find the First Blade, but Juliet begins to realize that there's something wrong with her master.





	

Since Juliet had rediscovered her master, life had been different. They used to spend time in Hell. Her master used to do throne room things while she waited. Her life had been stable and predictable. Now though, they were constantly on the move.

Every day meant a new location, and every night too. Her master traveled from place to place, occasionally stopping to hunt. He made sure to play with her every night though, either fetch the bone or tug o’ war, and always rewarded her with a treat. It wasn’t the same as their old life back in Hell, but it was still good.

Still, her master didn’t quite smell the same. It wasn’t clear at first, what with all the dead bodies lying around, but his scent had subtly changed. He used to smell like smoke and Scotch. Now he smelled like smoke and Scotch and mortal prey. There was a more human quality to her master and she wasn’t sure what to make of it.

At first Juliet was content to travel with her master, secure in the knowledge that they would stop to play eventually. Sometimes they would stop so that her master could talk to someone. He said things like, “Every demon has a say, vote Crowley,” or “Let’s return to the glory days of Hell,” or “Even Juliet here would make a better Queen of Hell than Abaddon”. That last one was her favourite.

They had been traveling for awhile - long enough for their days to develop a sort of routine - when something changed again; her master told her to wait in the shadow realm for him to return. Juliet whined in protest. She couldn’t help it, he had been missing for so long, she didn’t want to let him go. He patted her head, scratched behind her ear, and said, “It’s alright, my girl. Daddy won’t be gone long, a day or two at most. I have a job to do and then we can go hunting.”

She whined some more and licked his face, but he would not relent, so she nosed his chest and thought affectionate thoughts in his direction. The change in his expression was dramatic - his eyebrows lifted and drew together, his lips compressed and turned down at the corners, his shoulders slumped - but Juliet had never learned much about how to read the emotions expressed in meat. His true form was quite clear though; he was unhappy about leaving her, but was still going to leave.

The time that followed was horribly difficult. She wanted to go to her master, but he had forbidden it. She didn’t want to lose him again. When he was away, she was a sad dog. The one thing that made it all bearable was her master’s scent in her nose. Any time she felt like racing to find him, she only had to sniff the air to confirm that she could still track her master. With the scent of smoke and Scotch and human blood in her nose, she turned in place three times and nestled into her bed of shadows.

Night passed, then day, then night again. She worried, but she never lost his scent, so she stayed put. Juliet was a good dog. Then, that wonderful growly voice called, “Juliet! Come!” Without delay, she leapt through the shadows into the mortal realm where her master was waiting.

One sniff told so much. He had been with a human. Not just any human, but one of the humans she had smelled on him when he had returned before; a human that smelled of beer and cars and gunpowder. He had killed a demon and had been in the presence of others. There had been a spell on him that was now gone. There was another smell present that she couldn’t quite identify though. It was old and powerful and not quite demon but somehow _more_.

She had been left out of something and she didn’t like it. She rumbled a soft growl and tried to lick the smells off of her master. He chuckled in a good-natured way and patted her head, indulging her need to set things right. The human blood smell didn’t come off.

After that, their routine changed again. There were no more stops to talk to demons - no more proclaiming Juliet a competent Queen of Hell, which was disappointing - and no more shifting from place to place. Instead, her master began to hunt. At least, it looked like a hunt. He coated her in some sticky goop, then took her underwater with him and methodically searched the deepest, darkest parts. He never asked her to track anything, just wanted her to be there with him. On one paw, it was reassuring being by his side all the time, but on the other paw, he was hunting without letting her help. She wanted to bite something.

He worked spells and dug through wreckage and tracked the progress of _something_. She got bored. They were surrounded by pale creatures that somewhat resembled the true faces of demons in miniature. After awhile, the temptation grew too great. She barked once to ask permission to hunt, and her master granted it with a distracted wave of his hand. Gleefully she raced through shadows to hunt the scaled things with fangs writhing through the water.

Her little hunt was over too soon. Nothing could move as fast as Juliet. The creatures were small and died quickly, bones crackling beneath her jaws. Their meat tasted different from most thing, flavoured as it was with a mouthful of painfully salty water. The goopy stuff her master kept rubbing onto her (and himself) must have protected her from the salt in the water, but it didn’t help the inside of her mouth. The bones were fun to crunch though.

When she thought to check on her master, he was gone. She sniffed the water to find his scent - sparing a moment to feel disdain for the mortal dogs who could do no such thing - and rejoiced to find it so close. Wasting no time on swimming or running, she shifted immediately through the shadows to her master’s scent.

What she found was the last thing she expected. His feet slowly sinking into the squishy ocean floor, her master was covered in translucent blob-like creatures, countless things stuck to him that looked like whiskers but must have been arm/leg things. He struggled to slash at them with his shiny angel knife-thing - another smell that had been difficult to get used to - but couldn’t seem to pry them off. His eyes found Juliet and he snapped, “Where’ve you been? Nevermind. What are you waiting for? Get these off of me.” The words burst from his mouth in a muffled stream of bubbles, but she had never needed to physically hear him when his thoughts were so loud.

Having never encountered such creatures before, she was unsure of how to proceed. She tilted her head to one side and studied the creatures, trying to find their weakness. Apparently she waited too long. Her master sighed, pointed to one of the creatures and said, “Juliet. Kill.”

She didn’t want to disappoint her master, so she snapped her jaws around the indicated blob, easily penetrating its glass-like outer shell. A sharp tug pulled the sticky tendrils away from her master, but those that remained were stuck to her mouth. Chewing was an awkward affair. She just wanted to eat the thing and move on - there were so many more covering her master - but it was stuck.

By that point, her master was trying to pry one of the blobs off of his face, but his muffled shouts were clear enough; shadow jump already! Of course, her master was so smart. She opened her mouth to release her hold on the creature and allowed her corporeal form to dissolve. No longer stuck to anything, the creature’s mangled corpse floated lifelessly through the water. So smart! She darted in and snatched another squishy thing off her master, shifting in and out of the material realm to help without having to suffer the indignity of being stuck again. The remainder were dealt with as easily and soon enough her master was free.

But why hadn’t he done the same? A closer look showed that her master hadn’t yet reapplied his goopy stuff. The salt water must have been distracting, maybe even a bit painful. Just as she decided to console him by bumping her head against his chest, he reached both hands behind her ears and ruffled her fur. “Good dog, Juliet. Yes, Daddy loves you even though you went off hunting fish and left me to be ambushed while spellcasting. Who’s a good guard dog?”

The contrasting messages were confusing, but his true form could never lie. He was frustrated but he forgave her. Thinking back, she was the only one her master had ever forgiven. Although, now there was the beer/cars/gunpowder human. She wasn’t sure how to feel about that, so she bumped her nose against her master’s chest and tilted her head in silent inquiry. Her master gave her head a final pat, pointed up and said, “Time to go.”

Were they done in the salty place? She followed her master - his form vanishing and reappearing elsewhere while she loped through the shadows after him - to a dark alley between office buildings. He had already cleaned and dried his meat form’s clothing by the time she arrived. It being night, the doors were probably locked, but demons don’t need doors. He teleported from one room to the next, again in search of something, but he didn’t ask for her help. At least he didn’t until he finally stopped, exclaiming, “Hah!”

She stopped with him and waited patiently for more. He pulled open a desk drawer and pointed inside. “Juliet, darling, there was once a very powerful magical blade in here. Can you smell it?”

Oh yes. It was a strong scent, even if it had not been there for quite some time. She barked once, then cast about for the trail he no doubt sought. Finally! Something to hunt!

Her master praised her and asked her to follow the blade’s trail, promising to go to her when he could. Of course, she didn’t expect him to follow every part of a hunt, just the important parts. He trusted her to hunt the things he couldn’t. He would find her later. She barked again and took off in search of the blade that smelled of bone and blood and magic.

Her search crisscrossed the globe, tracking the scent over the ocean and back again too many times. Each time she found a place where the blade had remained for a significant time, she fetched her master and each time he followed her to the new location. The odd thing was, each time he smelled more and more strongly of human blood and less of smoke. It was highly disconcerting.

Still, her master seemed to be otherwise the same. He praised her for her progress, worked spells, and spoke to people. Once he confirmed that she was on the right track, he praised her again and left.

Then it happened; he didn’t come. She tracked the blade from Morocco across the ocean, back and forth from port to port, then finally back to the United States. She went to fetch her master and he said no. The human blood smell was stronger than ever. He smelled like something she should hunt and he didn’t care about the thing he had told her to hunt for him. For the second time in her life, Juliet felt lost.

Her master had told her to leave. He actually told her, “Go on, off with you. Go play and be happy.” Didn’t he know she was happiest with him?

She stayed and circled the building, leaving to hunt small game when she got hungry, but always returning. He didn’t leave, but the demon with him left often. She smelled like perfume and fear and _him_. Juliet immediately disliked her.

At first she was offended that her master would choose a frightened demon over her. He had always put her first. She decided to start following the demon in secret. Demons could see her shadow form, so she had to use every hunting skill she had ever learned to remain undetected. It took awhile, but her persistence paid off; she tracked the demon to a warehouse where it met with another demon. They spoke of Abaddon, Crowley, Winchesters and something called the First Blade. Perfume and fear demon said she wanted to report to the next Queen of Hell next time.

Her master had said that Juliet would make a better Queen of Hell. He needed to know. She wasted no time in leaving the lesser demons to their conspiracy. Slipping through the shadows, she ran as fast as she could back to her master. It didn’t matter that he had ordered her away, she would face the consequences. Juliet was a good dog.

She didn’t want to alert the humans to her presence by breaking windows, so she snuck into the building when someone else entered. After that, it was simple to get up to the floor where her master stayed. She scratched on the door and barked once to alert him, just as he had taught her.

Nobody answered the door. She waited, then scratched and barked again. If she had to, she would break down the door, but she didn’t think her master would appreciate that. Finally, she heard movement from inside and then footsteps. The door opened and there was her beloved master smelling of Scotch and human blood and the barest wisps of smoke.

She felt like howling but she was a good dog, so she clamped down on the urge and instead delivered the little series of yips that had always been the code he had taught her to warn of a threat not in the room. He looked puzzled, then asked, “You’re here to warn me? About Lola?”

Her confirmation bark melted the confusion from his true face and hardened it into steel. At last, her nose caught a stronger whiff of smoke from him. His human face frowned. “Is she working for Abaddon?” The array of emotions emanating from him when she confirmed again was baffling. Anger she had expected and betrayal too, but sorrow? Regret? She ignored it all in favour of the love and gratitude her master expressed towards her. The only appropriate response, of course, was to thoroughly lick his face which she did despite him tasting like meat.

He responded by doing something he had never done before. He wrapped his arms around her, buried his face in her fur, and cried. His tears soaked into her fur and he sobbed, “I’m sorry, Juliet. Daddy’s so sorry for telling you to stay away. You’re such a good dog. What did I ever do to deserve you?”

The strange emotions were too confusing. She pulled away and growled softly. It had the desired effect. He straightened up and wiped the tears from his face, then poured himself a Scotch. “You’re right, my girl. I need to pull myself together. Lola’s going to be back soon, no doubt, and I need to be ready.” He took a fortifying sip of his drink, double checked the location of his angel knife thing, then sat in the chair with a view of the door. “Juliet, love, I want you here, but you’ll have to hide somewhere she can’t see you. And let me handle it unless I ask you to jump in.”

Well, at least she was used to that order. Sometimes her master liked to get his hands dirty. She melted into the shadow realm and flattened herself on the floor between the bed and the wall. It wasn’t an ideal spot, but it would have to do. At least she could see the door.

The resulting confrontation went precisely as it should have. Her master got his answers and the perfume and fear demon went all crackly red inside from the angel knife thing, then she was meat. Sometimes Juliet wished her master would let her help so she could eat their kill. But then something happened that shouldn’t have happened; her master poked a clawed thing into his arm and forced more human blood inside himself. The little wisp of smoke that had been clinging to him was snuffed out again. He smelled like a Scotch-drinking human who had maybe gone camping once.

Enough was enough. Juliet dashed out, snatched the bag of blood the demon had brought, and left with it. It was easy enough to run into the bath room and shove the door shut. Her master was too slow with so much human blood in his veins. She had gnawed open the bag and drank the metallic-sweet goodness before he could force the door open. She was just licking the last of it out of the bag when her master barged in. His face was hard to read, but his true form felt upset. “Juliet! How could you? I _needed_ that. That was a _bad thing_ you did. Get back into the shadows and think about what you’ve done.”

The last time she had been sent to think about her misdeeds, she had been a pup, and a wee one at that. She had snuck into the throne room and chewed up a soul contract when her master had ignored her. She knew better now. She knew souls were precious and couldn’t be replaced. But human blood… there was an almost infinite supply of human blood. Why had her master lashed out for that? Unless…

Her master was still glaring at her, still upset, and oh. She hadn’t shifted to the shadows for her thinking. Tail between her legs, she slunk into a shadowed corner. With a small nod, her master settled back in his chair and gazed around the room as if seeing it for the first time. He took a deep breath (since when did he breathe?), closed his eyes, then took out his phone and called someone. “Not exactly,” he replied to the person on the other end. “I’m in a jam of sorts. Thought you might help.”

He didn’t want her help, he wanted help from someone else, and quite possibly because of the thing she had been punished for. It wasn’t fair! The blood was a bad thing, it was changing her master and making him less demon. She did the right thing, she was sure of it, but she was being punished for it.

Fine. If he wanted her to go away and think about what she had done, she would. Juliet positioned herself near the door so she could leave quietly when it was opened next, which turned out to be a few short hours later. Her master left and Juliet quietly followed him in her shadow form, careful to stay far enough back to avoid being spotted.

As she half suspected, the reason for his outing was to get another bag of blood to replace the one she drank. It took all of her resolve to stay hidden and not snatch it like she had the last. Her punishment was to think about what she had done. She was thinking. He took the blood back to the hotel and she snuck back in behind him. She had to get close to sneak back in, so he might have noticed her if he hadn’t been distracted by the two humans in the room. Immediately she was on high alert. Assassins? Prey? Hunters? They smelled like hunters.

Her suspicions were further roused when they snapped a magical metal binding on her master’s wrist. One of the men took the bag of blood from him though, so she waited. From her place between the bed and the wall, she listened. They said such things as, “We were counting on you, you let us down,” and “Your slimy followers were counting on you to kill Abaddon and you let them down,” and “What, you’re just gonna let Hell go to hell?”

That was a revelation; her master was supposed to kill Abaddon? The one who thought she would make a better Queen of Hell than Juliet? But he hadn’t done that. He had disappointed the two humans by not doing that?

Then her master said, “You don’t know what it’s like to be human!” Juliet was officially confused. Were they not human? She sniffed the air carefully to be sure. The tall one smelled like old books and coffee and definitely human. The other one smelled like… beer and cars and gunpowder and magic. Also human, she noted absently, but she was more concerned with putting the pieces together. He had been with that human several times before and always for longer than she liked, but he always came back. He had also never asked her to deal with that human. He was… safe? An ally?

It was too much to figure out with not enough information. She would follow and watch and learn more. Her master could summon her if he needed help. The humans took her master to their car outside. There was a bad circle in the back storage part which briefly concerned her, but they shoved her master in the back seat. The car drove off and Juliet followed.

The moon was in the sky when the car stopped. They had driven to a mostly-underground building that was covered in so many bad things. She bit back a whine at the thought of going in there. The men flipped a switch which broke the bad things, then took her master inside. While she was deciding whether or not to follow, one of them flipped the switch back and her decision was made for her. She settled in to wait.

The next time she saw her master, he was unbound and smelled more like himself. There was more smoke and less blood, though also somewhat less Scotch. Maybe there were helpful humans? She continued to follow and observe.

They sat on benches and talked to a man and then her master sent his smoke form into the man. He was only there a moment before going back to his usual meat. It was good to see him acting like himself again. When the man left, her master told the two humans, “National Institute of Antiquities.” That was where she had tracked the knife of blood and bone and magic!

They took her master back to the underground place again, but this time she was less worried. He would be safe and might even come out stronger as he had the first time. She settled in to wait. The car left without him. She hunted. There were many small creatures to eat in the woods and their bones crunched deliciously. The car returned. She waited some more.

It was day when the car left with him inside it again. He was again unbound. He smelled even less of human blood, more of smoke, and more of Scotch though the Scotch wasn’t quite right. She was inclined to count it an improvement. Following the car took her to a place with trees. The men and her master got out and walked through the woods. Following them led to a clearing. The men began to shout at the air until a portal opened and swallowed them.

Again, she was unsure. Her master had told her to sit and think about what she had done. He had not summoned her since. Was she still being punished? After thinking things over, she was certain she had done the right thing. The human blood had been making her master sick. The two men had helped set things right. She had thought but she had not been summoned. She would wait.

The tall books and coffee man returned alone. He said angry words to her master, but he still seemed safe, even while pointing with a very mean-looking knife. Her master called him Moose, but he didn’t look like any moose she had ever seen. He still smelled human too. Maybe the human blood was still scrambling her master’s thinking.

The not-moose man looked at papers until after dark, then told her master to go get spell ingredients. Her master shouldn’t be fetching things. That was her job! She followed him while he fetched things and brought them back, simmering at the indignity. Her master was not a dog. Maybe calling the not-moose man Moose was an insult because of him treating her master like a hound? She would call him Moose too. Idly she wondered what he would taste like.

Moose used the ingredients to cast a spell. By the time she realized what the spell had done, both of them had been eaten by a new portal and she was alone. She could no longer smell her master. He was gone again.

She stifled the urge to howl. He came back last time, he would come back again. All she had to do was wait.

The sky was light when they returned and Moose was carrying the objective of her mission! The other man’s magic smell was stronger and had killed prey. Her master was talking confidently of the things he had done. His words made it sound like he and they were a team. Was she to be forgotten?

They returned to the car and the beer/cars/gunpowder/magic predator-human was suddenly angry. Demons (working for Abaddon!) had injured his car while they had been away. Juliet wished she could have been allowed to hunt. She would have hunted the false queen’s minions.

While the man was trying to heal his car, Moose moved close to him and suggested that her master was no longer useful. Expendable? Juliet was about to intervene when her master did so first. In a majestic display of his powers, he pinned both men to the car and held them there. Then he thanked them. That puzzled her briefly, but then she realized he was thanking them for getting him the knife and for getting the human blood out of him. Her master was so good.

He went on to compliment the beer/cars/gunpowder/magic human (he called the man Dean, whatever that meant). He called the Dean a killing machine. Juliet could respect that. Then he went on to say that his name and Abaddon’s were on a list. What sort of list? Maybe a list of the people who want to rule Hell? Juliet’s name should be there too.

There was a plan laid out by her master - he would keep the knife until the men found Abaddon and then they would destroy her. Juliet approved of any plan to destroy the false queen. He then said that he and Moose couldn’t trust each other. No surprise there. He didn’t say anything about the Dean either way, so Juliet decided to cautiously mark him as a ‘maybe’.

Having said all that, her master left, so Juliet followed him. He appeared in a cemetery and immediately called, “Juliet? Come Juliet.” He waited, running a thumb over the handle of the bone knife. Suddenly unsure, she remained hidden and sniffed his scent. He smelled like smoke and Scotch and magic and some human blood and his true form _wanted her back_.

Overcome with the need to be done hiding, she leapt from her hiding place and barreled towards him, only mostly crashing into him. She licked his face and bumped him with her nose and her master _laughed_. He stroked her fur and ruffled her ears and laughed, all unfortunately one-handed thanks to the bone knife that had taken so long to find.

It was some time later that he addressed the fate of the knife to her. He hid the knife in a rotted meat body and buried it in the ground. Then he said to her, “Juliet, I need you to guard this knife. Guard it as if it were me.”

Of course she could do that, but what about her master? She directed her best questioning head tilt at him and whined. He smiled and petted her again. “Of course I’ll still come play with you. If I need you, I’ll call you. It’ll be alright, sweetheart. Can you protect the blade for Papa?”

Those terms were acceptable. She wouldn’t be alone, she could save her master if she needed to, and it was an important job. They needed the knife to destroy Abaddon. Then Juliet could claim her rightful place as Queen of Hell. It was a good plan.

**Author's Note:**

> This is an entry for the November SPN Coldest Hits Battle of the Losers. For further details see this post: http://spncoldesthits.tumblr.com/post/150931206930/spncoldesthits-november-battle-of-losers-as-of
> 
> The lines I reused from my winning fic were, "Juliet was a good dog." and "When he was away, she was a sad dog."
> 
> I love to hear from my readers. If you enjoyed this fic, please consider leaving me a comment to tell me what you liked. Please also feel free to come find me on Tumblr where I'm @thayerkerbasy


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